Imagine walking through alleys of a foreign country praying which cabin restaurant you’re being led to enter. You have only been given a brief description of what that actually means and no real idea what you’re supposed to be looking for, then all of a sudden it makes sense. You come up to a windowless, sketchy restaurant with a young woman outside and a man standing inside not far behind her just watching.
We go inside where there is a cashiers counter and then a curtain that leads to another windowless room with 4 booths. My heart started to pound as we walked past the curtain I wasn’t sure what we were going to encounter, thankfully we were the only ones there. We did as we were instructed and bought teas/coffees for ourselves and the girls as we had to buy their time in order to speak with them.
We listened to the girls stories one was 21, the other 18 and both began to work there at 15 years old. As they told us about themselves I went through a wide spectrum of emotions. The 21 year old’s father fell ill and she came to the city of Kathmandu to find work, washing clothes didn’t bring in enough money so she came to the cabin restaurant where her salary is about 500 Rupees a month about $57/year. Her parents do not know this is where she works and she believed this was her only option. She told us her dad became a Christian shortly after he became sick and that she used to go to church. When we asked her if she thought she was worth more than working here, my heart broke hearing “no, I have no education and no skills this is all I am qualified to do”. The very shy 18 year old girl had lost her mom and felt similarly and needed to be able to support herself so she ended up in a cabin restaurant. We asked if she had ever been to church and she said she had never been invited but, is not sure if she would go if she was.
We shared the Gospel with them; told them how much they are worth and loved. That their beauty stems far beyond their external features and that skills are learnable and if they want to lead a different life there is hope, options, and no condemnation in it. Both girls said they wanted to be rescued, that they no longer wanted to work there. We got their contact information, gave them the information we had for them, and prayed with them.
The ministry we are partnered with does cabin ministry at least once a week and have successfully rescued many young girls from this life. There are many organizations they work with to house these girls while they learn new skills and help them find jobs and transition in to living on their own.
Sadly, this is a norm here and many places do not have to traffic girls because enough voluntarily come to work in these restaurants. Please pray for God’s light to fill these dark corners of Kathmandu and bring more girls out of this life and to Him.
